Gina raced down the halls, the closest scream had been directly above her, and so she ran to the stairs. Quickly climbing up going almost three steps at a time before reaching the next floor in a matter of seconds.
Staring down the halls she could see where the pained scream had come from, but it was already too late for her to help them. In the middle of the hall was an old man, collapsed onto the floor with blood leaking from his lips. She didn't even need to kneel down to check, he was already dead, his heart not moving an inch.
Leaving the corpse there she moved on, she could head towards one of the others screams, but seeing what the first scream had brought her it would likely result in only finding another body.
She was about to begin running blindly around the apartment complex, when in the corner she noticed the familiar sphere for security camera, that was when it hit her. If she found the security office it would be as simple as checking the cameras for anyone and running directly to the ones in danger, no extra hassle involved. Without another second of delay, she made her way back down the stairs, passing her floor and exiting on the first.
At the first floor she did a quick look around over the complex, searching for anyone before unfortunately coming up with nothing and continuing on, running along the side searching for a receptionist desk or a security guard, anything to help locate the cameras. Turning the corner was when she finally saw it, a large reception desk that was currently empty, but with an employee only door behind it there was a good chance she'd find what she was looking for there.
Approaching the desk, she was almost twenty feet away from it when she heard a loud crunch, someone was eating nearby, but strangely the sound was coming from behind the desk. Another second passed with another crunch following it, and at that moment was when another blue screen appeared before her.
[ Human John Gino Slain DP+ 10 ]
[Achievement- First Kill. Grade: F. Reward: DP+ 5]
It froze her, if she had been faster, thought more on where she should have headed, she could have saved that man, but it was too late to think about that now, instead it was time to deliver a small revenge on whatever beast ended him.
With hushed steps she slowly moved to the desk, it felt like an eternity as each second went on, the crunching being ever prevalent, yet she made it.
Crouching out of view she quietly crawled to the small opening in the desk. Taking a small glance at what lay behind it she saw John Gino lying lifelessly on the floor as his former co-worker continued her meal, too focused on it to notice Gina.
It was clear that she had mutated, her hair was falling out and her skin was starting to rot away, she must have turned into a zombie.
Taking a deep breath Gina readied herself, quietly approaching the zombie she readied her claws flexing them to their full length and blindly stabbing forward into the zombie's neck.
It went limp, not even noticing her, and while the kill was easy it still put Gina's emotions in turmoil as her disgust flared, she was gagging from the smell of blood and nearly vomited from it, barely able to contain herself.
'Calm down, you've got to keep it together.' With those thoughts to herself she stepped over the corpses, quietly opening up the door behind the desk and walking in.
Several other blue messages had appeared by this point, all of which were from the pets of this apartment, but they still put more pressure onto Gina to hurry her search.
The first room provided her with nothing of use, a simple and small employee lounge for them to rest, but the second was the goldmine, it was the security office. Unfortunately, or luckily depending on how you look at it the guard was already dead, slumped in his chair with the same trail of blood from his mouth, but his computer was open with the camera feed being displayed and that was what mattered.
The first dozen or so cameras gave her nothing, just the similar empty hallways and the empty reception desk, but finally at the fifteenth she found something.
It was a little girl, wrapped up in a blanket too big for her that was dragging across the floor, and while that was normally cute there were two big things wrong with it. The first was that Gina could tell that she was sick hearing her cough violently through the camera feed, the second was that behind her and crawling towards her was a horrible fish-like abomination.
It was dragging itself forward with long sharp claws, and while slow, with the girl's sickness she was slower, and it was gaining on her.
Without another second of delay Gina dashed from the room, practically leaping over the desk and immediately climbing the nearby stairwell.
The camera had said it was for the fifth floor, and while it would be close, she would definitely make it in time to help that girl.
The speed and height of the climb was a bit tough on Gina, but she didn't stop for a moment, exiting the stairwell to see the little girl directly in front of her.
The sick kid spotted her almost immediately and let out a terrified shriek, freezing in place for a second, allowing the monster to claw her blanket and drag her towards it, now screaming in terror at the beast.
Without a second thought Gina ran forward putting herself between the kid and the fish monster as it swiped its sharp claws at her, leaving three large gashes on her left arm. Giving the fish a sharp kick to its maw the creature bounced back, letting go of the blanket and flailing to the floor helplessly.
Gina left it there, she needed to get the girl to safety, so without a moment's hesitation she picked her up, wincing slightly from the pain on her left arm, but managing to carry her down to safety.
A few floors down from the creature and still in the stairwell, Gina had to pause to rest, even though she was just a little girl it was hard to carry her with just one arm for support. Letting her down gently Gina tried to ask her a few questions, "Sorry about that scary monster, are you okay little girl?"
The girl gave a hesitated nod, still scared of Gina, it was obvious why she was scared from her furred ears and tail to her left hand still dripping with blood, but Gina paid it no mind and continued her questions, "I didn't mean to scare you, but I just didn't have time to explain with the fishy over there, would you be okay with telling me your name?"
She stayed quiet for a while and Gina had expected her to not answer, but she let out almost a small whisper, "Poti."
Gina smiled a bit, trying to be gentle, "Thanks Poti, my name is Gina, do you know where your mom or dad is?"
Poti hesitated again before answering, having to cuddle into her blanket for some courage, "Mom went to get lunch. She should be back soon."
Gina nodded, it made sense they did activate it at noon, wiping some sweat from her forehead she continued her small questioning, "Good, we'll wait for her at the first floor, okay?"
Poti agreed, letting out a small cough before allowing herself to be picked back up. She walked slowly this time, both to help ease Poti and to not alert the fish creature above them of their whereabouts.
Making it back down she let the girl down gently, going into the back for a brief moment to grab a spare chair for her to sit in. They waited there silently, but something strange was happening to Gina, her head was pounding, and it felt incredibly hot to the point where she was sweating buckets.
Looking at the cuts on her arm she realized why, each were slightly tinged with small green lines, poisoned, how badly she couldn't yet tell. It didn't help either that they were still open and bleeding, she had nothing to bandage them with after all. While she didn't like it, she'd have to go with their plan B.
Poti stared at Gina almost relentlessly, out of either fear or curiosity she couldn't tell, but her eyes kept flicking between her ears and tail.
After almost ten minutes of that awkward silence Poti's mother finally came back to the apartment.
Seeing the two of them she was shocked, mainly about how her daughter was outside of their home, but equally concerned that some stranger in what she could only describe as fetish gear was the only person watching her.
Dropping the food she immediately went on the attack, stepping between the two defensively, "What are you doing with my daughter?"
Putting her hands up Gina tried to answer, but was interrupted by the mother's loud scream, "SECURITY!"
Without giving her another second to shout Gina rushed forward putting her hand over the woman's mouth, "Quiet! it isn't safe here anymore, take Poti out of here to a hotel or something and tell your husband to meet you there, you'll all be safe that way."
The mother was scared of Gina, afraid of what she would do, that was until her daughter pulled at her skirt, "Don't worry mom, the kitty lady saved me."
"Saved you from what dear God you're bleeding!" It was at that point the mother had finally noticed the cuts on Gina's arm, they were getting worse.
Pushing through the dizziness Gina released her, "I don't have time to explain, just take your daughter and the food and go,"
Finally realizing the situation, the mother nodded, picking up her daughter and giving a small thank you to Gina before exiting out the doors.
She was barely standing now, whether it was from the blood loss or the poison it didn't matter, she had to get back to the apartment. Leaning against the walls she carried herself back across the apartment complex, her head pounding in protest with each step.
At the stairwell she slowly made it to the second floor before looking over at plan B, the fire alarm. It would get everyone out of the apartment complex as quickly as possible, but it would likely alert most of the mutated monsters to start breaking out of the apartments. At this point it was her only option though.
Pulling it the loud siren immediately started shrieking out the noise of it being unbearable to her new hearing, combining to add another layer of pain onto herself. With all she had, Gina pushed herself to the apartment where she had started, opening the door and collapsing onto the floor, fainting as she watched Quinn and Heather rush to her aide.